The Dark Knight (2008)

After the amazing success of 2005’s Batman Begins, expectations were set very high for the inevitable sequel. At the end of the first film, Batman was being informed of a deranged maniac on the loose who leaves a Joker playing card at the scene of his crimes. This led Batman fans squealing with joy to learn that Batman would be locking horns with his arch nemesis in the next picture.

Wisely sidestepping any kind of origin story for the Joker, The Dark Knight begins with the Clown Prince of Crime hot on the scene. Pulling off an intricate bank heist, the Joker makes a loud and clear statement that he is out to turn Gotham City on its head.

With the madness and criminal uprising from Batman Begins still carrying on, Batman and the Gotham City police have their hands full. What’s worse is that a number of copycat mercenaries are dressing up (albeit crudely) like Batman and attempting to deliver their own brand of vigilante justice. As their obvious inspiration, Batman comes to grow on the nerves of Gotham’s mayor and police chief.

The Joker offers his services to the criminal underground of Gotham, vowing to kill Batman in exchange for half of their combined money. Scoffing, the mobsters send the Joker away but then get outwitted as Batman, Lieutenant Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent kidnap the mobs’ accountant. Out of fear that their accountant could sell them all out, they hire the Joker to get rid of Batman.

Harvey Dent rises to the forefront and becomes what citizens call a white knight. Bruce Wayne watches the man’s popularity and realizes that Dent is more needed than Batman. Dent is unafraid to go after the big dogs and does so in the light of day, boldly making himself a target.

The Joker begins his quest to expunge Batman from Gotham and decides to have a grand old time in doing so. Every time Batman or the cops stop or interfere with the Joker’s plans, he comes back with something bigger, each time putting more and more people at risk.

Escalation is a key theme to the film and a key factor in the Joker’s psyche. He seems to have an almost childish “anything you can do I can do better” attitude in devising his plans and the most unnerving part of it all is that the Joker doesn’t care about money. Yes, he robs banks and is hired by the mob, but that’s not his motivation. At heart, the Joker is an anarchist, pure and simple. He seeks to destabilize everyone’s quaint existence and revels in pushing everyone to their breaking point.

Calling Batman to task, the Joker demands he stop hiding his identity and show his real self. He makes some good points about Batman choosing to hide in the shadows and there is a unique interplay between them. The Joker prefers a “fair” fight- he wants to take Batman on in the open with everything laid out on the table. Batman is challenged by the Joker because he uses the shadows to his advantage, like he was trained. He knows he can’t expose himself because there are too many people he could put in harm’s way. In an odd way, the Joker points out that by hiding in the shadows, Batman actually makes himself more vulnerable to freaks like him.

Things get worse from here. The Joker continues his escalation, killing the girl Bruce Wayne loves and creating a monster out of Gotham’s white knight in the process. Battle after battle and the Joker and Batman remain at odds. Batman sticks to his principles and won’t kill the Joker despite many ample opportunities, but that doesn’t stop the Joker from testing Batman’s mettle. At one point, the Joker almost breaks Batman, but now-Commissioner Gordon intervenes.

Essentially, The Dark Knight is little more than one big cat and mouse game. Some people might be turned off by this seemingly simplistic concept, especially given how deep and involved Batman Begins was. But it’s not the cat and mouse game that’s important here. It’s the relationship and interactions between characters that is important here. Where the old Batman films were all about the action, director Christopher Nolan takes the action and uses it as a driving force in defining and growing the characters.

Batman Begins gave us the first Batman we could believe in, but he does one better here and gives us a Batman we can doubt on an emotional level. The film left me with many questions, particularly why Batman continues to take the most difficult path before him. Here is a Batman that is fallible. We see his breaking point. I actually cheered when he was beating the Joker to a pulp. I wanted Batman to kill him. But then we learn that that’s what the Joker wants as well. To kill the Joker, Batman must compromise his principles, which is exactly what the Joker wants. Powerful stuff.

The writing, acting and directing are superb in The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan creates a worthy sequel that is only a sequel because Batman Begins came before it. It has its own story to tell and tells it in a very different way from how Batman Begins came together. Very little hinges upon the events of the first film, though everything builds off of what took place and what was learned before. The Dark Knight is its own film. It leaves things in a very bleak situation for the inevitable third installment, which is really going to have its work cut out for it. After two phenomenal films, can the new Batman franchise retain this level of quality?

Christian Bale is solid once again as Bruce Wayne and Batman. He shows a range of emotions and understanding that really build the character well. He is a very human hero, which makes Batman all the more impressive yet worrisome at the same time.

Aaron Eckhart was a competent choice for Harvey Dent. He has a similar build and look as Christian Bale, so Dent and Bruce really can be compared. Dent is decidedly more troubled, showing an angry streak that consumes him as Two-Face. He’s given a much more tragic and sympathetic treatment in the film than Dent ever got in the comics and prior films. Here is the fallen protector of the city, driven mad by revenge. Dent was a very honorable man before his turn, creating not so much a villain as an antihero, as Batman and Two-Face both stand for justice, but deliver it by different means.

Maggie Gyllenhaal does well as Rachel Dawes. Katie Holmes played the role originally in Batman Begins, but Gyllenhaal brings the toughness that the character requires in The Dark Knight. While it irked me a bit continuity-wise, I have to admit that I would have had a harder time believing Katie Holmes playing a hard-nosed assistant DA.

The supporting cast of Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are superb as always. They add just the right touches in just the right places.

This brings me to the Joker. When Heath Ledger was cast in this role I was a part of the collective “Huh?” that rose out among the fans. Known for his role as a teen heartthrob and for his work in Brokeback Mountain, many people thought that he lacked the acting chops to take on the role. In retrospect though, probably anyone would have been second guessed if cast for the part.

Ledger pulls it off though in a very astounding and, in my opinion, career-defining way. There was never a time during this film where I thought to myself, that’s Heath Ledger pretending to be the Joker. There was no Heath Ledger in this film. It was just the Joker. Ledger created a full-fledged persona, not just a character. Granted, it helps that the Joker’s makeup conceals the fact that it is Heath Ledger, but the performance sucks you in and grips you like few villains ever have.

I was particularly fond of the fact that Ledger’s Joker kept changing the story of how he got his scars and became the demented freak he is. It’s a powerful but subtle way of saying his origins and past don’t matter- all that matters is that he’s here and there’s nothing you can do about it. All too often today, films and books and TV try to rationalize criminal behavior in one way or another because a bad guy who’s “just bad” isn’t complex enough. It also tends to soften their edge a bit. Nothing is scarier than a homicidal maniac killing people just because he can. The Dark Knight brings back the “just bad” bad guy and it is one of the film’s true triumphs.

As to the question of whether or not The Dark Knight is better than its predecessor, my answer is ‘not really.’ Batman Begins and The Dark Knight tell two very different kinds of stories and it’s difficult to compare them at all because the characters, attitudes and behaviors in each film are so widely different. All in all, The Dark Knight is firmly Batman Begins' equal.

The acting and directing is better this time around, but The Dark Knight is held back by a few nit-picky things that I noticed. I couldn’t help but wonder how Bruce Wayne managed to build that huge underground command center beneath the docks without anyone noticing. Sure, Wayne Manor is still being rebuilt, but it seemed a tad far-fetched that something so vast could be lying under everyone’s noses.

Also, a few of the graphics looked a little off to me. One scene in particular was when Batman was riding around on his Batpod motorcycle contraption. When stopping, Batman drives it up the side of a wall and sort of flips it back down to the street. This sequence looked very fake to me because it happened unnaturally fast and smooth.

There are a few other things here and there, but as a whole film, The Dark Knight is a very worthy follow-up to a very worth reinvention of the Batman legacy.

RATING: 4 out of 5